Fly to the world. Where Virgin goes.

One does wonder sometimes  why people say things.  Take todays statement by Sir Richard Branson as an example.  He said, "I'm very fearful that if Britain loses the market of 500 million people that it will be catastrophic for Britain."  But, look at the flight map for his airline.  It does not fly to EU countries.

I cannot understand how he thinks we will lose access to the market of 500 million as he suggests.  

The only reason that will happen is if, after leaving the EU, the European Commission decides to introduce some sort of trade barrier.  Note that it will be the European Commission, not businesses that will put up the barrier.  Businesses just want to trade.  So it will be a sort of punishment.   

But the bizarre thing is, given we have a trade deficit with the EU, or what will be rEU, it will actually hurt their businesses more than ours as our businesses only export 43% to the EU.  The rest of ours goes to the rest of the world.  And that is the difference.  The UK is a global trading nation. 

How Angela Merkel will explain job losses at German car plants to her electorate will be interesting to see. 

Inevitably if the rEU puts tariffs on to us, we will put tariffs on to them.  And the rEU will be the losers.

In other words, it is back to the old story of the European Union.   

The EU is basically a law unto itself.  It set the rules, it implements the rules.  And it decides if it has broken its own rules.